JUMP up and Fly. A Northern California firm called Arcturus UAV has unveiled an unmanned aerial vehicle that can take off and land vertically and transition to fixed wing flight. Called JUMP, it uses four rotors on booms attached to the fuselage to get off the ground and reach altitude. Once up, the rotors shut off and a propeller at the plane’s nose takes it forward. It can then hover to initiate a vertical landing. JUMP is derived from the company’s T-16XL and T-20 airframes. The T-16 has a wingspan of nearly 13 feet, while the T-20 is more than 17 feet in wingspan. The flight controls are autonomous and employ the Piccolo autopilot for the transition to winged flight. Check out the footage.
Signing up for Growler. Boeing has launched an online drive to win support for the Navy to continue purchasing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft. The site urges people to submit a letter to their congressional representative as well as sign a petition to Congress. The effort began in mid-March and as of Friday has resulted in more than 5,000 letters to Congress and more than 5,300 petition signatures, according to figure on the site. Boeing is desperately pushing to keep the Growler line going. Boeing’s contracts to produce Growlers for the Navy and Australia will keep the line open into early 2016, but unless more orders come in, the company will be faced with closing the line that also produced F/A-18 Super Hornets. “The goal would be to educate the public on the Super Hornet and specifically right now the Growler for that emerging requirement,” Boeing spokeswoman Lisa Maull says, referring to the future need for electronic attack capabilities cited by the Pentagon. The Navy is submitting as an unfunded priority the need for 22 additional Growlers to meet the Pentagon’s requirement for electronic warfare. The website is also meant to educate employees, suppliers and community leaders about the airborne electronic attack requirement, Maull says.
Port Arrival. The amphibious transport dock ship USS Somerset (LPD-25) arrived at its new homeport in San Diego April 21, Naval Sea Systems Command says. The San Antonio-class (LPD-17) vessel was commissioned March 1 at a ceremony in Philadelphia and shortly thereafter journeyed from the Atlantic Ocean, through the Caribbean Sea and Panama Canal, to San Diego. “The crew of Somerset has worked extremely hard to train, qualify and prepare this great ship for service. They have met all challenges head-on and they have produced outstanding results exceeding all expectations,” says Capt. Thomas L. Dearborn, Somerset’s commanding officer. Somerset is the ninth LPD-17 and named after the Pennsylvania county where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
What They Saw. Kongsberg Maritime’s Hydroid Inc., subsidiary with Royal Navy data conducts a mission off the coast of South Devon, England surveying two U.S. Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs) that were torpedoed and sunk during the D-Day rehearsal Exercise Tiger on April 28, 1944. Using state-of-the-art autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) technology to collect data from the wreckage site, the mission produces the first high-definition sonar images of this World War II tragedy. This was the first time in history that an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle had surveyed the area. Exercise Tiger was a D-Day rehearsal for the invasion of Normandy’s Utah Beach.
Celebrating. On April 23, the nearly 200,000 strong Army Reserve celebrates its 106th birthday. As the U.S. Army’s only Federal Operational Reserve Force, the Army Reserve provides a cost-effective way to mitigate risk to national security. “Your professionalism, dedication, and technical proficiency build upon our extensive and distinguished legacy as a life-saving, life-sustaining force for the nation,” say the leaders in their birthday message. “Take a moment to reflect on the accomplishments and sacrifices made by the men and women who served before us. It is the road we build today that will lead future generations of Army Reserve Soldiers and families beyond the 21st Century. We remain…Twice the Citizen, Army Strong!”
Making The List. Army Maj. Gen. H.R. McMaster is one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. McMaster commands the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Ga., and is slated to get a third star and new duties at Training and Doctrine Command this summer. McMaster is in some interesting company on that list joining Secretary of State John Kerry, NSA nemesis Edward Snowden and Miley Cyrus, among others. McMaster turns up on the Pioneers section of the list, with a piece by Dave Barno, a retired lieutenant general who commanded all U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. Barno says McMaster “might be the 21st century Army’s pre-eminent warrior-thinker.”
ETD Win. The Transportation Security Administration this week awarded Smiths Detection a $115.5 million contract for the company’s IonScan 500DT explosive trace detectors, which are typically used for secondary screening of explosives at aviation security checkpoints and hold baggage screening areas for checked bags. Smiths Detection typically competes with Safran Group’s Morpho Detection business unit for ETD orders from TSA.
Restricted Report. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General in 2011 changed the security classification of a draft audit report on the effectiveness of the Transportation Security Administration’s body scanners used at aviation checkpoints, an action that limited release of the report, according to an investigation by a Senate subcommittee. The IG’s report was originally classified Secret but a TSA addendum submitted to the IG increased the classification level to Top Secret, further restricting distribution, the subcommittee’s report says. The investigation by the Senate staffers shows that then acting DHS IG Charles Edwards accepted the additional information from TSA over the objection of his assistant for audits, who said the new information doesn’t change the IG’s conclusions and is an attempt by the agency to “’derail our report and minimize our findings.’” Edwards told the committee in an interview for the investigation that he acted on the advice of a department intelligence official that the higher classification was for national security purposes.
…Bad IG. The Senate report was prepared by Democrat and Republican staffers of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Financial and Contracting Oversight Subcommittee, which found that Edwards abused agency resources and jeopardized the independence of the DHS IG Office. Edwards resigned from his acting IG position last December just days before the subcommittee was going to hold a hearing on his abuse of agency resources and was reassigned to a position elsewhere in the department. Rather than maintain independence of the department he was charged with overseeing as a watchdog, the report says Edwards socialized with senior DHS officials outside of work, provided these officials with updates and investigations, and sought legal advice from the department’s general counsel rather than the IG’s counsel.
Aerospace and Defense Balance. General Dynamics Chief Phebe Novakovic says she likes the balance her company has between the aerospace and defense markets. The company’s Aerospace segment is spearheaded by its Gulfstream business jet unit, and to a lesser degree its Jet Aviation services business, which combined to account for more than 46 percent of GD’s $871 million in segment operating profit in the first quarter. She says investments in Gulfstream the past decade are paying off and the company will continue to make investments where it has an opportunity “to grow very accretively and profitably.” Novakovic says the company’s defense businesses have been holding up well and adds that the Marine Systems segment has “considerable revenue upside” during the next few years.
MC-27J. Alenia Aermacchi and ATK complete their first flight of a fully-configured MC-27J multi-mission tactical transport aircraft demonstrator, according to an Alenia Aermacchi statement. The demonstrator aircraft was modified with a L-3 Wescam MX-15Di electro-optical and infrared turret optimized for ISR and search and rescue missions mounted under the nose of the aircraft. The aircraft was also modified with Link-16 datalink software and hardware provisions that will prepare the aircraft for the ATK palletized mission system installation. The installation of both the ATK-developed modular roll-on/roll-off mission and weapon system and a modified side door for the GAU-23 30mm cannon installation will be completed in May. A new series of flight tests, including firing the side-mounted cannon, will be finished in June. Alenia Aermacchi is a division of Finmeccanica.
B-2 Software Upgrade. Northrop Grumman completes a preliminary design review (PDR) of a new software upgrade called Flexible Strike Phase 1 for the B-2, according to a company statement. The Air Force’s Flexible Strike Phase 1 program is the first step in a process that will help increase the bomber’s mission capabilities and reduce its maintenance costs. In Flexible Strike Phase 1, the company plans to replace multiple operational flight programs (OFP), embedded software that allows the B-2 to communicate accurately with the equipment that holds and dispenses its weapons, with a single OFP. The PDR, performed in late February, is the company’s opportunity to show the Air Force it understands the required interactions between the aircraft and its weapon systems and that the new software will manage those correctly. Northrop Grumman also developed the B-2.
MUOS Test Lab. General Dynamics C4 Systems opens its Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) Radio Testing Lab at its Scottsdale, Ariz., location, one of two Navy-approved labs supporting testing for radio terminals intending to connect with the MUOS space-ground network, according to a company statement. The lab is equipped with hardware and software that simulates the radio’s connectivity with the MUOS ground network. The first terminal to receive government authorization and enter the lab was Rockwell Collins’ ARC-210 radio that began testing in March. MUOS, developed by Lockheed Martin, is a next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications (SATCOM) system designed to significantly improve ground communications for United States forces on the move. Two satellites have been launched.